Brad Revellhttps://www.bradrevell.com
Learn from yesterday, live today, prepare for tomorrow #permanentbeta
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1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.1.187927377The Case for Trump by Victor Davis Hansonhttps://www.bradrevell.com/2019/03/the-case-for-trump/
https://www.bradrevell.com/2019/03/the-case-for-trump/#respondWed, 20 Mar 2019 10:05:43 +0000https://www.bradrevell.com/?p=1251My Rating of “The Case for Trump” by Victor Davis Hanson: 6 / 10 Many years ago I used to read the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and struggled with the large amount of right wing opinions; the balance just wasn’t there. At the time it was important to read both sides of an argument in …

Many years ago I used to read the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and struggled with the large amount of right wing opinions; the balance just wasn’t there. At the time it was important to read both sides of an argument in order to be truly informed. Fast forward to today and we are drowning in constant waves of Trump news, opinions and frustrations. I have my opinions on Trump however like my experience with the WSJ, I wanted to read about the case for Trump; why he won, what did he do to win and how did he do it (the opposite of these books I have previously read: Fear: Trump in the Whitehouse,Higher Loyalty, What Happened and Fire and Fury and The Devils Bargin). Let’s be clear from the onset that The Case For Trump was a difficult book for me to consume!

The Case for Trump covers the last three years of Donald Trump. From his announcement of candidacy for President of the United States of America to March 2019 (approximately two years into his Presidency). Hanson lays out both facts and opinions on his journey to the White House. As I progressed through the book I felt the story was more about why Hillary Clinton and the Democrats lost rather than why Donald Trump won. I didn’t read this book for the former, I wanted to read more about the latter. Trump definitely had the will and not the means, rallied middle America, treated people as people and had the advantage of being a non-politician.

There were also aspects that were loosely written in the book. For example, Hanson stated that Obama did nothing about the Russian interfering with US elections since 2014. Those types of blanket statements written books frustrate me for two reasons. The first is there are aspects of National Security where investigations and actions are not necessarily ready or visible for public consumption. Second, Obama requested an investigation fo the 2016 election and demanded it be expedited so that when he left office Trump could bring it forward.

The book opens with the phrase “… dedicated to the deplorables.” It is a good indicator of what you’ll expect in this book.

Three key takeaways from the book:

There is continual argument on who has driven the continual growth of US GDP and the increase of jobs since the Great Recession. Both Trump and Obama claim the achievement. There is a fair argument that Obama never saw an increase of 3% in GDP during his presidency. That said, let’s see what happens in the medium term.

]]>https://www.bradrevell.com/2019/03/the-case-for-trump/feed/01251Re-read: The Obesity Code by Jason Funghttps://www.bradrevell.com/2019/03/re-read-the-obesity-code-by-jason-fung/
https://www.bradrevell.com/2019/03/re-read-the-obesity-code-by-jason-fung/#respondSat, 09 Mar 2019 10:43:33 +0000https://www.bradrevell.com/?p=1243This year I’ve decided to focus more on re-reading books which have had a significant impact on me (see category re-read). I have seen significant benefits in the areas such health, wealth, love and happiness because of useful and informative books. When reading a book I diligently take notes and write reviews on this blog. …

This year I’ve decided to focus more on re-reading books which have had a significant impact on me (see category re-read). I have seen significant benefits in the areas such health, wealth, love and happiness because of useful and informative books. When reading a book I diligently take notes and write reviews on this blog. Although I remember many aspects of these books there are just as many aspects I also have forgotten.

From a health perspective I have focused on the following authors of books and blogs:

Mark Sisson: A focus on the Primal Lifestyle (think eating, exercise and wellbeing).

Dr Joseph Mercola: More technical focused nutrition articles and books. Although like Sisson I have felt they are becoming more and more commercial.

In this instance I decided to re-read Jason’s Fung’s book “The Obesity Code” (My original review in 2017: URL). What I liked about this book is the balance of technical information coupled with simple concepts a layman can follow. Without doing another review given you can access the previous one I did, here are some key points relevant to obesity and weight loss:

Why are some Doctors overweight if they know best about weight and obesity? Sometimes the focus is on proximate cause versus ultimate cause.

70% of obesity is inherited. Evolution did not favour obesity but leanness; something that has changed dramatically over the last century (due to more sugar in foods and reduction of saturated fats in foods, focus on snacking and mis-information by governments, media and consumer packaged goods organisations etc)

Calories in equals calories out. Calories should not be the focus for weight loss. If you reduce intake of calories into your body, you will automatically reduce calorie expenditure (i.e. less energy, less motivation / focus, body feels colder etc.)

Obesity is a hormonal imbalance due mainly to the production of insulin. The other aspect to consider in relation is the build-up of insulin resistance.

Intermittent Fasting’s success is due to the nature of the term intermittent. It is helpful for the body to be a little random. Having three meals a day (as well as snacking) isn’t helpful as we haven’t evolved this way.

Fasting is not starving (one of these concepts is a choice, the other is not). As above, we have evolved for thousands of years not eating three meals aday (let along snacking given today’s conventional wisdom).

Muscle loss does not occur during fasting. Think again about evolution, if muscle loss occurred during fasting, humans would never have survived. Muscle loss during fasting only begins to occur when your body fat percentage is approximately 4% or less.

Intermittent Fasting can sometimes be a struggle. To help suppress hunger drink water or coffee (more water and not too much coffee), add cinnamon to drinks and/or take a nap.

Changing your fasting routine is the best way to break through a weight plateau.

Hope this helps! Please read this book as it is a short read and contains a wealth of information. It frustrates me to no end that most people focus on the wrong things when it comes to health and nutrition. Keep it simple and think about how we have lived for thousands of years.

]]>https://www.bradrevell.com/2019/03/re-read-the-obesity-code-by-jason-fung/feed/01243Facts and Fears: Hard Truths from a Life in Intelligence by James R. Clapperhttps://www.bradrevell.com/2019/03/facts-and-fears-hard-truths-from-a-life-in-intelligence-by-james-r-clapper/
https://www.bradrevell.com/2019/03/facts-and-fears-hard-truths-from-a-life-in-intelligence-by-james-r-clapper/#respondThu, 07 Mar 2019 10:16:03 +0000https://www.bradrevell.com/?p=1240My Rating of “Facts and Fears: Hard Truths from a Life in Intelligence” by James R. Clapper: 8 / 10 One could consider the books I have read of late as “political binging”. Most of the books have been focused on historical events and others on current events. The choice to read Facts and Fears …

My Rating of “Facts and Fears: Hard Truths from a Life in Intelligence” by James R. Clapper: 8 / 10

One could consider the books I have read of late as “political binging”. Most of the books have been focused on historical events and others on current events. The choice to read Facts and Fears was to get a better understanding of a key aspect of the political world; intelligence gathering. One that is based on facts versus opinion.

From the onset Clapper outlines the theme of this book: intelligence is about fact gathering and policy is left to the politicians. With this foundation set he then chronicles his life. Clapper begins the story as a young boy travelling around the world given his father’s role in the government and finishes with his own journey in the intelligence world.

Clapper has had a long and very interesting career in the military and subsequently in national intelligence. Clapper covers many points that have fundamentally changed the way the US gathers intelligence. Furthermore it has impacted how the US works with foreign governments. One example he cited was the launch of Sputnik and how it dramatically altered intelligence gathering. Prior to the launch all governments did not really know who owned space and how each other would behave if that fact changed. We all know the result of that change now!

My favourite part of the book was Clapper’s detailed explanation of key events in intelligence history. For example, he provided a intricate review of the NSA Edward Snowden leak. Whilst I won’t go into detail here I was surprised with some of the facts I didn’t know. I also found Clapper’s assessment on the impact to both the USA and intelligence gathering very enlightening (both during and post the incident). I also look at Edward Snowden in a different light because of this.

This isn’t necessarily the political opinionated writing you would normally come across in this genre. I have come away with a better understanding of how national intelligence and the military work interact with governments.

Three key takeaways from the book:

Resources are limited, threats are not.

Leading by fear and control only drive people to do what they are told. An alternative approach is a leadership style where people aim for their best and feel guilty when they don’t hit the mark.

Intelligence communities have always found it difficult to measure a country or civilian’s “willingness to fight”.

]]>https://www.bradrevell.com/2019/03/facts-and-fears-hard-truths-from-a-life-in-intelligence-by-james-r-clapper/feed/01240The World As It Is: Inside the Obama White House by Ben Rhodeshttps://www.bradrevell.com/2019/03/the-world-as-it-is-inside-the-obama-white-house-by-ben-rhodes/
https://www.bradrevell.com/2019/03/the-world-as-it-is-inside-the-obama-white-house-by-ben-rhodes/#respondTue, 05 Mar 2019 10:10:06 +0000https://www.bradrevell.com/?p=1235My Rating of “The World As It Is: Inside the Obama White House” by Ben Rhodes: 8 / 10 Late last year I watched a Netflix documentary about Obama’s last year in the White House. Ben Rhodes played a major part in this documentary as he is the person responsible for developing the foreign policy …

My Rating of “The World As It Is: Inside the Obama White House” by Ben Rhodes: 8 / 10

Late last year I watched a Netflix documentary about Obama’s last year in the White House. Ben Rhodes played a major part in this documentary as he is the person responsible for developing the foreign policy messaging in the White House. Said differently, everything you heard Obama say publicly on foreign policy had Ben’s fingerprints all over it.

Recently I saw this book released and I was intrigued to read more about Rhodes’ story. Like many in the Obama White House, he begun his journey during Obama’s Senate days and stayed on the wave as it continued to build momentum. I’m a passionate traveler and keep up to date with all the current events in the world; whether via a newspaper, Twitter or a podcast. We all develop opinions about these events based on what we have read, heard or discussed with others. Sometimes we do not have all the facts and other times we skew our opinion based off our values and map of the world. What I liked about this book was the behind the scenes details on how the message was developed, why it was developed that way and the ultimate receiving of that message by the public. The best example would be the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Whilst I didn’t really learn anything significant while reading The World As It Was, I thought it was an enjoyable read. I’d recommend it to others in order to learn more about foreign policy development.

Three key takeaways from the book:

A great saying that Obama said during his Presidency: “<insert incident> is just a pimple on the arse of progress.” I have to remember that one.

Ben Rhodes constantly struggled that he was losing his identity as a person because he was always writing in the identity of Barack Obama. Many of us could say the same thing given where we work and what we do.

The amount of preparation and decision making that did (maybe not so much now) was done prior to a speech being presented.

]]>https://www.bradrevell.com/2019/03/the-world-as-it-is-inside-the-obama-white-house-by-ben-rhodes/feed/01235On Confidence by The School of Lifehttps://www.bradrevell.com/2019/03/on-confidence-by-the-school-of-life/
https://www.bradrevell.com/2019/03/on-confidence-by-the-school-of-life/#respondSun, 03 Mar 2019 10:06:54 +0000https://www.bradrevell.com/?p=1230My Rating of “On Confidence” by The School of Life: 8 / 10 This book was an interesting choice for me compared to most of the books I read. The choice of On Confidence was due to research I did as part of my District Leadership responsibilities within Toastmasters. What’s great is that I have …

This book was an interesting choice for me compared to most of the books I read. The choice of On Confidence was due to research I did as part of my District Leadership responsibilities within Toastmasters. What’s great is that I have many personal takeaways.

Confidence is a concept that some put too much focus on and others too little. I grew up with my Dad always saying to be confident in any situation; whether an exam, job interview, driving test or my first date with a girl. These days I’m a relatively confident person, however at times I’ll defer to others who are externalising greater confidence. What’s great for the reader is the knowledge that confidence is a skill and not something you inherit from birth. It is something that can can be built, however The School of LIfe believes confidence is founded on a set of ideas about the world and our natural place within it.

On Confidence is a very short book and can be consumed within 1 – 2 hours. Given the time investment required, I highly recommend this to everyone. If you’re a less confident person you will certainly learn something. Conversely if you’re very confident, there are aspects you should reflect on. I don’t normally do this in a review however I’m going to finish with a quote from the book that to me is quite profound:

“One of the things that separates confident from diffident people is their approach to history. Broadly speaking, the unconfident believe that history is over; conversely, the confident trust that history is still in the process of being made – and possibly by themselves one day.”

Three key takeaways from the book:

Once we learn to see ourselves as already, and by nature foolish, it won’t matter so much if we do one more thing that might look stupid.

Faced with challenges, we often leave the possibility of success to others, because we don’t see to ourselves to be the sort of people to win.

We start out in life with a very strong impression that competent and admirable people are not like us at all.

]]>https://www.bradrevell.com/2019/03/on-confidence-by-the-school-of-life/feed/01230The Right Story: A Brief Guide to Changing the World by Bernadette Jiwahttps://www.bradrevell.com/2019/02/the-right-story-by-bernadette-jiwa/
https://www.bradrevell.com/2019/02/the-right-story-by-bernadette-jiwa/#respondWed, 06 Feb 2019 19:49:00 +0000https://www.bradrevell.com/?p=1221My Rating of “The Right Story: A Brief Guide to Changing the World” by Bernadette Jiwa: 9 / 10 The older I get the more importance I put into story telling as well as being a better story teller. Whether it is age, being in a sales environment or my longevity in Toastmasters, telling the …

My Rating of “The Right Story: A Brief Guide to Changing the World” by Bernadette Jiwa: 9 / 10

The older I get the more importance I put into story telling as well as being a better story teller. Whether it is age, being in a sales environment or my longevity in Toastmasters, telling the right story at the right time to the right people in the right way is critical. So much so that Bernadette Jiwa quoted that very line in her book about telling the right story.

I’m a regular reader of Jiwa’s blog and in April last year read her previous book Story Driven (my review is here). I love her niche and the importance it has in today’s society. Recently I read a quote from a professor at the London School of Economics where she said “… yesterday was about muscle, today is about the brain and tomorrow will be about the heart.” To win the heart you must tell the right story.

The Right Story, like most how-tos books, comes with a formula called the The Story Compass. The Story Compass is a tool to help drive powerful and purposeful storytelling. The four areas outlined are Attention, Action, Connection and Persuasion. The Story Compass also aligns on the what, where, who, when, why and how in your story.

The book is an extremely quick read. So much so I started and finished this book on a flight from London Heathrow to Oslo (1.5 hour flight). Want a formula for telling better stories? The Right Story is worth the investment in order to start you on the right path!

Three key takeaways from the book:

We become better communicators when we understand three things: what we believe to be true, what we want our audience to know, and what the people we hope to influence are open to hearing at that moment.

You cannot change a mind without winning a heart.

Good storytellers and great communicators seek to understand before being understood. Read (and heard) this one before but worth mentioning again.

]]>https://www.bradrevell.com/2019/02/the-right-story-by-bernadette-jiwa/feed/01221Bad Blood by John Carreyrouhttps://www.bradrevell.com/2019/02/bad-blood-by-john-carreyrou/
https://www.bradrevell.com/2019/02/bad-blood-by-john-carreyrou/#respondTue, 05 Feb 2019 19:43:38 +0000https://www.bradrevell.com/?p=1216My Rating of “Bad Blood” by John Carreyrou: 9 / 10 The Theranos story is fascinating. I had read many articles in the Wall Street Journal at the time while living in the USA. Theranos in its hay-day was the darling of tech start-ups yet it transformed quickly into a scandalous mess! John Carreyrou, an investigative reporter …

The Theranos story is fascinating. I had read many articles in the Wall Street Journal at the time while living in the USA. Theranos in its hay-day was the darling of tech start-ups yet it transformed quickly into a scandalous mess! John Carreyrou, an investigative reporter for the WSJ, broke the story which has changed the tech, start-up and health industries in many ways.

The book can be broken down into two main sections. The first section is the history of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. It puts the all the pieces of the puzzle in place to the point where Carreyrou became involved. The second section focuses on Carreyrou’s perspective. He provides a first person narration given his involvement in exposing Theranos. Furthermore, Carreyrou outlines how he was involved, who his sources were and how the ivory tower of Holmes and Balwani crumbled in such grand fashion.

This book was written very well and I found it an easy book to consume. There are only a few key characters, the health concepts are explained and the scenes are set and well described. Many start-ups have unique stories and Theranos is no different. What I found remarkable is how the reality of Theranos could never keep up with its vision. A generally available product released to the health market which didn’t actually work would never end well.

One of the senior leaders in my company has a great saying. We should only sell what we can implement and implement what we sell. That sentence sums up the Theranos story well!

Three key takeaways from the book:

One of the sources in the expose of Theranos said that it was like trying to build a bus while driving the bus. A very apt metaphor!

Elizabeth Holmes mirrored herself off Steve Jobs. Her ability to present and sell the vision is one reason why Theranos was so successful. Some say that Holmes had a similar “reality distortion field” that Jobs had during his reign at Apple.

It was reported that many key staff members would just be fired without any communication to the rest of the company. In situations like this a one-off firing may not be a warning sign. However, when a random non-communicated firing becomes the common thing in an organisation one needs to think seriously about what is going on behind the scenes. In Theranos’ case, it was the employees who were standing up for their ethics, integrity and the well being of customers.

]]>https://www.bradrevell.com/2019/02/bad-blood-by-john-carreyrou/feed/012162018: A Year in Reviewhttps://www.bradrevell.com/2019/02/2018-a-year-in-review/
https://www.bradrevell.com/2019/02/2018-a-year-in-review/#respondSun, 03 Feb 2019 17:52:13 +0000https://www.bradrevell.com/?p=1207“People do not decide their futures, they decide their habits and their habits decide their futures.” – F.M. Alexander It is with both a combination of frustration and a little embarrassment that I finally get to post my “2018 Year in Review”. January has been nothing less than a wild ride; I traveled to six …

“People do not decide their futures, they decide their habits and their habits decide their futures.” – F.M. Alexander

It is with both a combination of frustration and a little embarrassment that I finally get to post my “2018 Year in Review”. January has been nothing less than a wild ride; I traveled to six countries and spent only thirteen nights at home! It is now February and I’m a month overdue with writing this post. With that said, I do need to wait until mid-January for my data provider subscriptions to perform their aggregations before I am able to post this (see statistics from RescueTime, Exist.io, DayOne, TripIt later). Now that they are all in, let’s go!

2018 Statistics

Drucker famously said that what gets measured gets done. I have quoted this before and find it even more applicable given some of the highlights of 2019. The more I measure with technology the more insights I’m gaining and the adjustments I’m able to make in productivity, efficiency and effectiveness.

Travel

I traveled to 15 unique countries (35 total country crossings in 2018). Only three of those unique countries is new (e.g. Switzerland, Corsica and Portugal). This year I want to increase the new country count as I love discovering new food, cultures and people. Russia, Iceland, Egypt and Lebanon are targets for 2019. Below is a TripIt table summary:

Productivity

I’ve continue to use RescueTime for monitoring my technology. As a knowledge worker, most of my time is spent on technology. RescueTime tracks device time against various categories (e.g. productive, unproductive etc.).

In 2018, RescueTime logged 1,538 hours total hours just on my MacBookPro. 630 hours were tracked as productive and 187 as distracting (i.e. email, Slack, instant messaging etc.). I also spend as equal time on my iPad as I use it for copious amounts of note-taking (with OneNote and an Apple Pencil; my perspective on that here). Unfortunately RescueTime isn’t tracking tablet or smart phone usage in the detail I would like. There are some glimmers of hope given Apple decided to open up some iOS APIs in 2018.

Reading

I’ll discuss reading more in detail later in this post. In 2018 I set myself the challenge of reading 50 books. I ended up actually reading 61 books. This is far less than I did in 2016 and 2017 however I believe I now have the right balance. This momentum will continue in 2019.

Miscellaneous

Exist.io and Life Cycle are the last two areas of data capture. Both applications are data aggregators which take measures from RescueTime, Apple Health, Cronometer andSleepCycle to provide a correlated view of what’s happening in my life. Some interesting statistics:

4.3 million steps taken (3,169 km walked)

7 hours and 18 minutes of average sleep per night (Happy with this result!)

Location breakdown:

2,490 hours at home (Note I also work from home a lot)

19 days and 10 hours of active time (average of 1.5 hours per day doing some sort of exercise)

623 hours at a work location

396 hours at a hotel

296 hours of transportation (car, bus, cycling around London)

165 hours on a plane

64 hours of waiting at airports (always find this one interesting)

Mood breakdown:

4 days Amazing

39 days Great

197 days Good

106 of Okay

3 of Bad

2018 Highlights

The first major highlight was on my switch of focus from goals to habits. I’ve been a very goal orientated person over the years. I typically achieve goals and then instantly search for the next thing. One of the drivers of this change to habits is due to James Clear and Tony Robbins. First, James Clear’s blog and recently released book advocates the establishment of habits coupled with deliberate practice. Tony Robbins supports this approach by preaching fulfilment versus achievement. In this scenario you set a habit to be a healthy person or an excellent speaker. Both focus areas can be hard to measure in aggregate, yet both can be approached by habitually chipping away each and every day (the 1% rule). I typically hit the gym or exercise every day in some way. I also tend to eat well on a daily basis. Similarly I’ve been a Toastmaster for 16+ years and continue to hone my speaking skills both in the Toastmasters environment as well as in my day job. The more I do the 1%, the compounding effect comes into force significantly.

The second major highlight was my reading. Back in 2015 I started a goal of reading 50+ books. I achieved this in 2015 and decided to increase this to 80+ books in 2016 and 2017. Reading has given me an incredible opportunity to learn many things that I have applied in my life. What I did find interesting was the difference between achievement versus fulfilment (see my reference to Tony Robbins earlier). My focus was on hitting the reading goal versus getting the knowledge and wisdom from those books. Therefore in 2018 I set the goal for 50 books and ended up reading 61. The focus is now more on the book reviews and application of the knowledge I gained. This worked well and I’ll continue this approach going forward.

The third highlight was turning 40. Although to me age is just a number, I felt it was a unique opportunity for celebration and reflection. My family flew over from Australia to celebrate with me in London. It was great to have them in town as well the trip we took to Europe. Once they left I decided to turn my focus on the 40 years of potential reflection. I took off with a friend and rode a motorcycle around Switzerland and southern France for about a week. It was my time to think about where I’ve come from, what I have accomplished and where I want to go in future. Doing this in relative isolation (on the back of my motorcycle) is highly recommended as I find I do my best thinking in these situations and learn quite a bit about myself. The side benefit was the feeling I have missed for years when it comes to riding in picturesque environment!

The travelling bug continues to play a focus in my life. One of the trips was to Singapore to attend the second instalment of the Graduate Certificate in Global Management with INSEAD. The course was two weeks focusing on Finance for Executives. Finance is an area for me I need to deepen my knowledge in. Studying with a group of senior executives that come with a wealth of experience in finance certainly justified the large investment of time and money I made (it was very expensive).

The last highlight is Toastmasters. In 2017 – 2018 I took on the role of Area Director. My aim was to give back to an organisation that has provided me with so much benefit over the years. I’m a confident and capable public speaker because of Toastmasters. I want to make sure this organisation continues to thrive. By continuing my volunteer work as a District Leader, it will help others like me develop the confidence and skills needed to get up in front of people and get their message across. I enjoyed the Area Director role and decided to nominate for the Division Director in July of 2018. As a Division Director, I now support a number of Area Directors, many more clubs and a larger membership base. I’ve had to continue to expand my leadership abilities. More importantly, I have learned to hone the art of motivating members to volunteer and contribute when they may not necessarily get a direct benefit (e.g. money).

2019

The focus for 2019 will be consistency. I have established many important things in my life and the focus is to continue this momentum. Sometimes I fall off the path yet end up jumping back on. I may not be able to do a full gym session or eat well every single day, however, it is critical that the next day I’m back into the gym and balancing the not so good with something healthy. This focus on habits will also include the posting of blogs and book reviews when fresh in my mind.

The other focus area for 2019 will be music. Music has played an incredible role in my life. From gaining a choral scholarship in order to attend a private school to being an electronic music DJ, music continues to push boundaries, get creative and to think outside of the box. With all the reading and learning I do, music will help keep the balance on creativity and thinking differently.

]]>https://www.bradrevell.com/2019/02/2018-a-year-in-review/feed/01207Blowing the Bloody Doors Off: And Other Lessons in Life by Michael Cainehttps://www.bradrevell.com/2019/01/blowing-the-bloody-doors-off-and-other-lessons-in-life-by-michael-caine/
https://www.bradrevell.com/2019/01/blowing-the-bloody-doors-off-and-other-lessons-in-life-by-michael-caine/#respondWed, 30 Jan 2019 16:47:48 +0000https://www.bradrevell.com/?p=1199My Rating of “Blowing the Bloody Doors Off: And Other Lessons in Life” by Michael Caine: 8 / 10 Growing up in a family who’s father is a fan of Michael Caine established a soft spot in my heart. It was the reason why I picked up this book. I like Michael Caine, his movies …

My Rating of “Blowing the Bloody Doors Off: And Other Lessons in Life” by Michael Caine: 8 / 10

Growing up in a family who’s father is a fan of Michael Caine established a soft spot in my heart. It was the reason why I picked up this book. I like Michael Caine, his movies and his portrayed public image. My aim when picking up this book was to learn more about Caine’s private story. What makes him tick and what advice would he provide given the amazing journey he has experienced.

Blowing the Bloody Doors Off is a very easy listening book (listened to the Audible version). Who doesn’t love Michael Caine’s voice and accent? Having the audiobook read by the author was a nice treat. It allowed me to develop a deeper relationship with the author. As with most biographies, you get the background and early aspects of Caine’s life; or better known at the time as Maurice Joseph Micklewhite. The only criticism would be the editing as there were times where the editing was poor given the change in pace and tone of Michael Caine’s voice.

Caine clearly states that this book is his reflection on life and as an actor. He wanted to impart his perspective on what has worked for him along with the mistakes and perhaps areas for the reader / listener to think about. There are many tidbits of advice Caine provides. There was strong emphasis on knowing your lines or approaching life like an audition (I.e. put yourself out there). I also liked how he spoke so fondly of Sean Connery and Roger Moore (yes, a big fan of James Bond).

It’s a short and sweet read with plenty of lessons in life!

Three key takeaways from the book:

Michael Caine’s wife only dated him because of how he treated his mother.

When people ask Michael Caine what the movie Inception was about, his response is “it’s about 2 hours.” Nice

Knowing your content is critical. Whether you’re an actor in the movies or specialist presenting in front of your audience. Knowing your content sets you free to read your audience and engage at a level you cannot if you are thinking about what next to say.

]]>https://www.bradrevell.com/2019/01/blowing-the-bloody-doors-off-and-other-lessons-in-life-by-michael-caine/feed/01199Portfolio People Blog Posthttps://www.bradrevell.com/2019/01/portfolio-people-blog-post/
https://www.bradrevell.com/2019/01/portfolio-people-blog-post/#respondSun, 27 Jan 2019 12:59:06 +0000http://www.bradrevell.com/?p=1194Wrote a guest blog post on Portfolio-People earlier in the month. It was about saying yes to opportunities. Go check it out as I think it is a very relevant aspect for our careers today. URL: http://www.portfolio-people.com/portfolioblog/january-15th-2019